Standards Australia distribution and licensing policy framework

Submission from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), National and State Libraries Australia (NSLA) and the Australian Libraries Copyright Committee (ALCC) on the development of a more accessible Standards system.

ALIA, NSLA and the ALCC are supportive of a non-exclusive model for the distribution of Standards information in Australia. This has the potential to result in a more accessible Standards system, which we welcome.

We are also supportive of Standard Australia's (SA) proposed principles – greater reach, awareness and use of Standards, ensuring long-term sustainability – but believe ‘access’ should also be included, setting a minimum requirement for public access to the Standards.

We support the calls in other submissions to make the Standards publicly available under a Creative Commons (CC) licence, to maximise public access.

In addition, SA should not limit its licensing to a single commercial licensor model. It should also provide one or more separate licences for non-commercial users, designed to meet the needs of these users and meet SA’s important public access mandate.

To ensure SA’s financial sustainability, these licences could be provided at a reasonable rate designed to recover the cost of producing the Standards. Additional revenue could also be obtained through commercial licensing for products aimed at trade professionals, for whom the base level access provided through a library is inappropriate.

Finally, we propose that SA partners with libraries and archives to make archived Standards freely and easily available to professionals and the general public, utilising purpose-built systems such as the (NED) service.

Publisher

Deakin, ACT: Australian Library and Information Association

Contributor

National and State Libraries Australia; Australian Libraries Copyright Committee